"Shonker Shootout - A Snowy Sunday Special" thread in "Motorbike Chat"
Herriewullie had a TDM shonker. I had a Revere shonker. The grass being greener, and all that, we decided to swap. A bit of negotiation, ...

Herriewullie had a TDM shonker. I had a Revere shonker. The grass being greener, and all that, we decided to swap. A bit of negotiation, and the time and place were set: the middle of the country (Donington), the middle of the day (12 noon, today)

So, at 8:00 this morning, I poked my nose out of the door, saw the thermometer reading -2c and an inch of snow everywhere. Lovely! I think I set a new world record for the most layers of clothing ever worn to ride a bike - thermal base layer, HG armour layer, polo neck, BMW phase change layer, microfleece, then TeHavs outer suit. 2 pairs of thin socks + ski socks, Daytona Boots, Alpinestars Drystar Storm gloves and a balaclava. Should do the trick!

I wheeled the Revere out of the garage, it started fine, and I paddled out across the snow to the slush of the street. Gently, gently, gently... out to the main road, and fill her up with fuel. It was still snowing as I left, at about 8:45 and headed out to the A1. The inside lane was well cleared, but lane 2 was still covered in icy slush - a fine excuse not to try any overtakes! Only 10 miles down the road and I saw the first casualty of the icy roads, as a northbound Micra had slid backwards into a tree. Ouch!

I made it as far as Wetherby services before stopping for my first coffee. I was really pleased I'd fitted the headlamp fairing to the bike yesterday, it was doing a good job of keeping the worst of the bitter wind away, and only fingertips and nose were feeling the cold. A dash of petrol, oil level check, and away again.

The next stretch was better, as the roads cleared of slush, but there was a lot of spray, made worse by riding south towards the low sun. My left hand barely stayed on the bar, spending most of its time wiping my visor (glad of the Vee-wipe on my index finger.) I was toasty warm, though.

This was the longest trip I've tried on the Revere - and although it's painfully slow, it's steady and dependable. There's absolutely nothing at all below 4k revs, and precious little more above that! Slipstreaming a Nissan Micra downhill, with a following wind, I saw 75 on the clocks at one point!! It would comfortably sit at 60-65 on the level, but needed to drop to 4th for any sign of an incline. Throttle response? Acceleration? Nope - try somewhere else.

Surprisingly comfortable, though - the seat is well padded, a slight reach to the bars is relieved by windblast, low pegs, and soft (soggy) suspension certainly errs on the side of comfort over handling! The solitary mirror did a wonderful job of reassuring me that my blurry right elbow was still in fact attached to my body. I became the lifesaver king...

Another stop for fuel, and a small top up of oil, before arriving at Donington services bang on time. Will arrived 3 minutes later, and we retreated inside for hot coffee, some lunch, and to compare notes on our respective bikes. Some paperwork later, we went to inspect the noble steeds.

Just as Honda-san and Yamaha-san intended, resplendent in style, prime examples of their respective sporting heritage. Ummm..... no. Bent, thirsty, scratched, torn and tired. But enough about Will The bikes are both pretty shonky, to be honest. The Revere sports at least 4 different shades of blue, and the silver bits have been interestingly (over)sprayed. The TDM has bent topyoke / bars, the tattiest Corbin seat ever seen, and some brilliantly inventive bracketry tacked on. An oil topup from a discarded coffee cup helped, too. Perfect! A quick photoshoot and handshake, and we set off again, homeward bound.

Coming from the Revere, the TDM has incredible throttle repsonse! The fuelling's not perfect though, it crackles and stutters a bit below 3k or if I'm cack handed with the throttle. The bent bars make the handling somewhat odd - it feels like I'm countersteering into a left hander, all the time! Not so bad on left handers, but really odd on rights. The speedo lies like a Russian pimp - either that, or all the trucks on the way home were miraculously doing 75 - and it wobbles. And despite having a factory fitted screen, the windblast is odd, blowing right up the underside of my helmet, and I felt colder on the TDM than on the Revere.

The tatty Corbin seat is comfy, though, well designed and shaped, and the riding position is lovely - nice and upright, good visibility and low pegs. More space to stretch. The mirrors (note the plural!) were immensely better - I could see BOTH blurry elbows now!

Not long home now, and pleased enough with the swap. There's a few bits needing sorted (who needs brake fluid, or retaining screws in the front master cylinder anyway?!) but it rides pretty well.

Shonkers FTW!

Hopefully we'll hear from Will soon......

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Token bauble:

Bah humbug.

You must have rode right by and didn't stop for a cuppa, altho had I seen the post I could have joined in on the divvy or versys

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mmmmmmmmm

Wanna swap a TDM for a Versys?

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Token bauble:

Bah humbug.

Knocking 2.5% off VAT is nowhere near as optimistic as that post^^^

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Es mejor morir de pies que vivir en las rodillas

MC 004

Shy bairns get nowt

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Token bauble:

Bah humbug.

LOL @ Olly, no

Versys got a proper clean yesterday and despite being used all year by the previous owner there isn't a sign of corrosion anywhere, I turned the screen upside down which is apprently the way to stop the turbulence and it actually looks like it was meant to be that way, hmmmm and finally I fitted a pair of KTM handguards that went straight on in 15 mins. It then got dried and coated in FS365 for the outings it will get this winter.
Only thing left to do is fit some heated bar grips and she's ready

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mmmmmmmmm

Herriewullie loves his new Revere so much, he wants to kiss it:





Me in my subtle oversuit, with the TDM:

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Token bauble:

Bah humbug.

Arrgghhhh - my eyes!!

The suit is no great shakes either!

a striaght swap eh? are we having a poll as to who's blows up first?

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Wear your salt as a badge of AWB pride

Same as him really: started down Guildford and headed up to Donny:

Lots of layers, started off with a nice bit of merino thermals and went on from there. I keep my bike gear in my rented wood workshop with the bikes, so the boots were cold and the leathers stiff. The TDM reluctantly stuttered into life (not bad from a 2001 battery!), first on one cylinder then the other chimed in and I noticed for the first time that the steam coming out of the exhausts blows 'steamrings' when you blip the throttle. Cold fingers already from unlocking chains and handling padlocks and 3 different metal doors and gates, then more time buggering about with layers and getting balaclavas, ear plugs, keys put away, truck locked up.....

Out onto the farm driveway and gingerly across the snowy wooden bridge that you can make a tractor spin up on in the damp. The roads weren't too bad, but I took the direct way towards the A3 and M25 so I was crossing two ranges of cold misty hills with leaf mush, mud, crusty slush and lovely cold squared off tyres. And a stuttery bike. The only way to warm things up was a few sections of full throttle madness....

Onto the M25 and the slush hit the fan, a grubby visor and constant drizzle and spray kept me wiping on a regular basis. As I came round past Heathrow and towards the M1 it started to take the piss and I could barely keep a clear view. I held on, waiting for the first M1 services at Toddington, half expecting to find a text from Olly saying that he'd been beaten back by the norvern Arctic weather. As I thawed out at the services, with one finger refusing to warm up and play ball, I spent some time annoying the staff to get hold of some furniture polish to shine up the visor and get the slush beading off. A mega hot chocolate with four sugars for luck sorted me out and getting back out to the bike I found the sun had popped out and the world was a happier place.

The pink squirty furniture polish had done the trick and the spray was beading and wafting off beautifully. Annoyingly I found Tony Christie and Amarillo had popped into my head, but it was good to have something to sing and a rhythm to carry. I was running a but late so I wound the Russian pimpometer up a bit, but found I spent my time worrying about cars that were approaching or matching speed.

I counted the junctions down and swung into Donington services, feeling quite smug that there was no Revere or happy Darlingtonian waiting. Then he rode in, aparently he'd filled up and been there for 5 mins Yeh right

Pit stop then onto the shonk handover, a run around the quirks and wondrous specialfeatures of our new steeds. The Revere has a very natty little switch nailed to the dash to switch the radiator fan on when you fancy it. The other unique feature is the oil pressure light which stays on until you put the bike in gear.

It was interesting to see Olly perching on the TDM...... it's quite jacked up with stiff suspension and I've always found it top heavy and a bit of handful. And grumpy. And the breath's a bit smelly.




I folded myself onto the Revere, which is a compact little donkey




and we went to top up the TDM, which had used a fairly sensible £7.60 since Toddington 80 miles previously. A quick cheesy photostop and then fire off down our own slip roads back towards home.

For an unstressed V twin supposedly with low down grunt to whizz you about town, the Revere felt a bit strange, needing revs and clutch slip to get off the line. The middle gears are all fairly chirpy but as the speed builds it all starts to feel a bit miserable and sickly, as if I'd left the handbrake on. I don't know what I'd done, but the speedo wouldn't work for and for about 10 miles the indicators wouldn't spark up either
Anyway we pootled on happily southwards, happily mixing with the Corsas and Micras, the grannies, newly licensed and the dawdlers. The bike didn't seem happy pulling the revs in top gear....

and then.....

I found I had another gear to go, and it really really didn't want to pull that one. I started an ongoing series of mechanical hypotheses- from mice in the airbox to rebadged c90 engines, to maybe (just maybe) it had been restricted to 33bhp and the restrictors were still hiding unknown and untouched. While dodging the grannies I could only hold my hand out in apology as I squeezed through and tailgated to keep up the momentum. Happy days. A bit of filtering found a sweet spot and the Revere shows its immaculate handling and poise for a bit of swordplay......

A piss and petrol stop found more weirdness. The distance the Teed had managed for £7.60 found the Revere needing £12.60!

Off the motorway and heading shedwards again found the bike still wanting for power but quite happy and self contained even with bakelite tyres white lining around a bit,much more polite than the nervousness the TDM exhibits on slippery bits.

A quick squirt with a hose and bit of Truck Wash to drop the salt and poop off and a tidy bike with crap detailing emerges. Happy overall, just wondering where all the horsepowers have gone, I reckon there is less spunk than my bruv's 400 Bros and it seems to have the same limp wristed throttle response as his RVF 400 that was 33bhp restricted. We shall investigate.
http://www.hawkgtforum.com/forum/sho...highlight=rich possibly a bit of this, good to see our own DefTrap gets about....


Warm and happy, beer in hand. W

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"Unserainer Trinkt Maxlrainer"

or a carb float that's drooping or full of fuel. I did reckon she was smelling very petrolly and fruity even when Olly rode up, so I'm going to go digging some time.....

(when I get the Haynes manual )

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"Unserainer Trinkt Maxlrainer"

Bakelite tyres? You're not kidding. Continental's Crazy Concrete Compound™ them Pilot Road 2s in the post, fella. (and the Haynes!)

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Token bauble:

Bah humbug.

Excellent posts you two.

Did Abba's 'Take A Chance On Me' replace Tony Christie on the way home Will?

I did something similar with a chap on VD.

So who's stitched up who then

Get that poll up Andy.

Excellent post guys, really enjoyed reading that